An estimated 1,500 Indonesian Muslims destroyed three churches before
attacking an orphanage and hospital in Central Java on Feb. 8.
The mob
was protesting a court's decision not to sentence a Christian man to
death for defaming Islam.
Antonius Bawengan, 58, received a five-year prison sentence – the
maximum penalty allowed by law – under the “blasphemy law” that has been
invoked to silence critics of Islam.
However, the crowd assembled at
his trial believed the sentence was too lenient, and demanded his death.
They assaulted a group of police officers that reportedly numbered
around 1,000 before moving against the churches.
The crowd first attacked the Catholic Church of Sts. Peter and Paul,
in an assault that seriously wounded a missionary priest of the Holy
Family congregation.
The missionary, identified only as Fr. Saldanha,
was beaten by the mob as he attempted to defend the tabernacle
containing the Eucharist against desecration.
The crowd later set fire to two Protestant churches, Bethel Church
and Pantekosta Church, before terrorizing a Catholic orphanage and a
hospital run by the Sisters of Providence.
Archbishop Johannes M.T. Pukasumarta of Semarang, the Secretary of
the Indonesian Bishops' Conference, told Fides news agency that he
believed the outbreak of violence seemed to have been “planned and
orchestrated” by extremist groups elsewhere in the country, as a
response to the Bawengan case.
“We are shocked by this event,” said Archbishop Pujasumarta. “The
town of Temanggung is normally a quiet place. The extremists have come
from outside.”
He urged Christians to work for reconciliation and forgiveness to the
greatest possible extent, rather than retaliating.
“Violence is never a
good solution,” the archbishop observed, calling on “everyone, Muslims
and Christians, to address issues with a sense of civility and in a
spirit of fraternity.”
“I invite the Catholic faithful and all Christians not to react to the violence. We want to be a sign of peace to all.”
Nevertheless, the archbishop admitted to Vatican Radio that he felt
profoundly “disappointed” by the mounting intolerance of a “group of
fanatics” in his country.
Two days before the church attacks, a mob of Muslim extremists in
West Java attacked and killed three members of a small Islamic sect, the
Ahmadiyah. Video footage of the attack showed attackers stoning their
victims to death, then beating the corpses as police officers looked on.
Leonard Leo, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, described the mob's killing of the Ahmadiyah
followers as “just more deadly evidence that blasphemy laws are the
cause of sectarian violence.”
Domestic and international observers have also noted the negligence
of police in both of the recent attacks. Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia
director at Human Rights Watch, called for a “a full investigation into
why the police absolutely failed to prevent this mob from going on a
violent rampage” against the Ahmadiyah in West Java.
Fr. Ignazio Ismartono, a Jesuit priest who oversees inter-religious
dialogue for the Indonesian Bishops' Conference, observed to Fides that
“the violence in Temanggung was in preparation for days” before the
church burnings and other anti-Christian violence actually occurred.
During those preceding days, he said, “the police did nothing to prevent public disorder.”